Local case semantics in Kalasha

Abstract

The article presents a semantic analysis of five local suffixes in the Indo-Aryan language Kalasha (north-west Pakistan): the three locative suffixes

Kalasha texts – With introductory grammar

“…Semantically, these local suffixes are distributed according to topographical or referential characteristics of the location, denoted by the parameters 'support type', 'dimensionality', 'visibily/accessibility', 'dispersion', and 'specificity'. Table 11 illustrates the basic semantics of these local case suffixes (see Heegård Petersen 2006a andHeegård 2014 for lengthy discussions of the semantics of the local suffixes).…”

“…(Heegård Petersen 2006aHeegård 2014), these words have been termed 'relational nouns' or 'relator nouns', following a tendency in the typological literature, see for example Starosta (1985), Svorou (1994), and Blake (2001).…”

“…Text 8.1: L'awakas kisa 'The story of a fox' Narrated by Erfan (Guru, Biriu) 1996 Transcribed and translated by Taj Khan and Jan Heegård 1996, 2014 This is one of many fables with a fox who cheats on its companion. In this version it seems to be the fox' fear of a bigger animal, a markhor, that causes it to cheat on that animal.…”

“…Jan Heegård 2006 and2014. With this story we are introduced to the mythology of the Kalasha. The story sets out with being an explanation of the ritual Yas'i parik (Yasi + go) where in the case of a rainy period the women of a valley traverse the valley to make clear to the gods that they want this situation to stop.…”

“…Bashir's dissertation and other work on the verbal morphology and syntax in Kalasha (Bashir 1988a(Bashir , 1988b(Bashir , 1990(Bashir , 1996 have served as the primary sources for those chapters that deal with these aspects. Heegård Petersen's work on the nominal morphology and adpositions (Heegård Petersen 2006a, Heegård 2014 provides the primary contribution to those chapters that cover these areas of the grammar, and Mørch and Heegaard Petersen's (1997) and Heegård and Mørch's (2004) phonetic and phonological analyses provide the main input to the presentation of the phonology. For all analyses that include lexical semantics, Ron Trail and Greg Cooper's dictionary of Kalasha (Trail and Cooper 1999) has served as a useful reference work and source of inspiration.…”